Parasol

Long-necked shipwrecked terrifed swan
the lies in her mind left a burner on,
we crowd into the grand salon,
we’re watching the mansion burn
I’m not quite down with the way they roll
they throw knives from their eyes at my parasol
but I’m only human after all
go easy on me!
It’s not like a country lane,
a day on the beach in Spain,
I’m courting a madness
I cannot explain
O Virginia
We didn’t know you had it in ya
O Sweet Virginia
And I coughed this up in a sooty perfume
out of my mouth like a feather plume
and now here’s one more crazy tune,
adversity rings my bell!
The wound came loose with a terrible stench
pain left a stain on my piano bench,
I chased it with a monkey wrench,
cursing in my broken french!
It’s not like a country lane,
a day on the beach in Spain,
I’m courting a madness
I cannot explain
O Virginia
We didn’t know you had it in ya
O Sweet Virginia
and no you can’t play that in this serious hall
only apes wearing capes get the curtain call
( no girls wearing pearls! )
your invitation to the ball
must be lost in the mail
I don’t quite feel like working this crowd
the West has requested I dumb it down,
they’ll run your circus right out of town
if you won’t abide but it’s suicide!
It’s not like a country lane
a day on the beach in spain
I’m courting a madness
I cannot explain
O Virginia
We didn’t know you had it in ya
O Sweet Virginia
We didn’t know you had it in ya
O Sweet Virginia

Lonely Side of the Moon

The wind
makes a terrifying sound,
it wants to tear the lid off earth,
it wants to pull the heavens down
It would seem like
nature versus man,
but the battle is absurd,
all the cards are in her hand
“Graceful animal
how clumsy you can be!
I will make a mess of you
if you make a mess of me
but there’s always
the lonely side of the moon,
you can live on the lonely side of the moon…”
Observe
the glacier bowing out
like a brave and threatened queen
who knows there’s no way out
Be a-feared!
if you think gods and men conspire
while the human drama burns
the stage is catching fire!
Deep dark ocean,
cherry tree in bloom!
If there are no mockingbirds
how will I find a tune
On the lonely side of the moon
when I live on the lonely side of the moon?
Earth so beautiful
can this be the end?
let me learn your miracles
if I am to start again
on the lonely side of the moon
on the lonely side of the moon

Modern Man I & II

this is modern man
leaning out a window
lonely for the music of a ferris wheel or birthday
party
time will take his hand
lead him to the gate and
when he turns around he knows he can’t go back, he
can’t have Eden
no
the road is overgrown
at the end of words
at the end of mathematics
a mystery absurd that at once both fascinates and
terrifies him
ah but never mind!
he’s working on the numbers
take apart the dolls! he longs to quanitfy the miracle
but oh
there are those things that he will never know
though he can feel them
pearl of blue and white
dangling like an orchid
from the unseen fishing rod of some amazing
architect
or not,
is this the truth we knew and then forgot?
maybe the lies are all that we’ve got,
but aren’t they beautiful

Compatriots

I saw my compatriots walking at nightfall
soccer games blaring from every cafe,
it’s amazing how life can go somehow unnoticed
then
somehow so loud it rattles your brain
My eye is digesting the infinite parcels of
beauty and ugliness, matter and light
O saint O sinner O ancient beginner,
O trembling river of life!
Forgive me sir!
I know not the magic words,
is it the fever first
and then the fire?
The neighbour above me is banging his windows,
insults bounce off me like peppercorn rain
I’ll answer him later, return the favour
when I have perfected Parisian disdain!
The city is bristling, biting its fingers,
bellies are full of the same butterflies
Count down the seconds in twenty-five languages,
O the millions of eyes
Forgive me sir!
I know not the magic words,
is it the fever first
and then the fire?

The Rose

Will the birds be singing when my life is done
and all the seasons of me have come and gone?
Plant me in the garden where the willow grows
and from my sorrow, a rose.
How high the moon
How deep the ocean?
I never knew ‘til now
When the curtain closes there’ll be no surprise,
if the anthem’s playing we know to rise.
Every living creature, born to close their eyes
but love, the great magician, never dies.
How high the moon
How deep the ocean?
I never knew ‘til now
For the years of sadness, no I will not mourn,
for in the deepest darkness courage is born.
How high the moon
how deep the ocean?
I never knew ‘til now

Hear Me Out

I used to know the way inside,
how to mend the broken look
in your eye,
but now the look is out of reach,
I can only see the trust
you don’t have in me
Hear Me Out
I’m not your enemy
if there’s doubt
there doesn’t need to be
I’m around
I’m always going to be
so, before you go
hear me out
You think that you’re the only one
with something in your heart
blocking out the sun
every time the fire went out
I would always go to you
now I don’t know how
Hear Me Out
I’m not your enemy
If there’s doubt
There doesn’t need to be
I’m on your side
that’s where I want to be
so before you go
Hear me out